Nourish.How…manly?Does it make you pause to read those two words together?Nourish and manly—if anything it seems comical doesn’t it?Nourish sounds too much like nurture, too much like comfort, too un-rugged, too un-manly for them to be paired.Ask a man to describe himself.

I love a good mystery.Our incessant news coverage of the airline disappearance of MH370 suggests I’m not alone.Aren’t our curiosities piqued by the unexplained and don’t we theorize with each thread of detail that emerges?All these years later, I believe mystery continues to permeate through the Christmas season.Christmas’s mystery may not be a New York Times Bestseller whodunit solved by a keen mind and it may not be the next hit podcast like Serial, but I believe its mystery renews our hope, first, and our lives, later.

Yesterday, I was severely sick. I had some 24 hour bug--a sickness that zapped me like I had rarely been zapped before. What I realized during the hours of aches, nausea, discomfort, and misery was that I am weak. There's no way I could make it through labor. I reflected on Jessica's strength as she gave birth to Leigha two years ago and as we are preparing for our second child in the coming months. There's no way I could ever muster the strength to push an infant through my body. Let's just say God knew what he was doing when he made me male...

Halloween is on our doorsteps.We’ve just celebrated the Harvest Festival, and had a blast doing it.Churches have moved away from using the term Halloween, instead opting for a more inclusive "Harvest Festival." We give lip service to the idea of celebrating the harvest, but we endorse disguises, candy, masks, and pumpkin carving.I don’t think we’re being disingenuous and I don’t even think we’re being hypocritical.We may just be removing, or avoiding, some of the toxicity of the Halloween name.If you’re like my family, come October 31, you’ll find yourself going door to door, dressed up in an outfit, collecting candy that you really shouldn’t eat, really don’t want to want, but gladly eating and putting off for another day that chance to fast, burn calories, exercise, or eat healthy.We’ll put off our wiser thoughts and throw on garments to join our kids because it’s fun, it’s what we’ve known, it’s (usually) harmless, and it’s about our kids.

We invite you to join us as we explore some strategies to engage our lives anew. The outlines below come from Pastor Matt's messages about Developing Healthy Habits for Life. Feel free to refresh yourself on the messages.

Recently, our children’s ministry team planned an outdoor pumpkin picking/decorating event outside.The day,weather, families, and children were all beautiful and inviting!Yet, a disturbance emerged on the fringes of the gathering and soon hysteria ensued as a snake loitered about three yards from our toddlers.Men went to look for shovels, parents grabbed up children—whose was whose was no matter of importance—and brave kids stood at a distance gawking and bragging on what they would do if only mom allowed them.

Isn’t there something intriguing about the prohibited rooms you can’t enter?Walking through the hospitals or government offices, we often see the restricted access signs keeping the general public out.To workers who have been behind the doors, the few secrets that lie within are usually not life-defining.

Have you ever given much thought to why you do certain things certain ways?I learned to tie my shoes around age six or seven and remember something about a rabbit going around a log—or maybe it jumped a stump.Yet, as a sixth grader I sat in Sunday School and Ms. Sherry taught us the official way to tie shoes.